China rejects WTO terms

Henry C.K. Liu hliu at mindspring.com
Sun May 9 20:44:26 PDT 1999


Monday May 10 1999

Beijing rejects WTO wish list

FOO CHOY PENG in Shanghai

Beijing has discredited the extraordinary

list of concessions Washington last month

claimed the mainland would make as its

price for entry to the World Trade

Organisation.

Sources said mainland negotiators - in

preliminary contacts with Japanese

counterparts at the weekend, hours after

Nato's bombing of the Chinese embassy in

Belgrade - had advised Tokyo against

using the list as a basis for WTO

negotiations.

"We told them we do not recognise the list

and so they should not use it as the basis

for negotiations," a mainland negotiator

said.

The latest twist marks a toughening of

Beijing's WTO bargaining stance after

news of Nato's accidental missile strike on

the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

Minister for Foreign Trade & Economic

Co-operation Shi Guangsheng strongly

condemned the bombing, with Xinhua

reporting he had convened a special

meeting yesterday morning among staffers

and other trade officials to denounce the

"barbarous" attack.

The news agency said Mr Shi blasted the

"hypocritical" nature of the "so-called

human rights trumpeted by the US".

Beijing's list of concessions - unilaterally

released by top US trade negotiator

Charlene Barshefsky's office during

Premier Zhu Rongji's North American visit

last month - was surprising in scope and

depth of tariff cuts and offered

concessions in key areas of US interest

such as banking, insurance, and

telecommunications.

On Thursday, Mr Shi told European Trade

Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan the list had

some inaccuracies, but did not entirely

discredit it.

Beijing and Washington are due to resume

WTO talks this Sunday with the aim of

getting the mainland into the world trade

body by the end of the year. But analysts

believe the bombing would build on an

anti-American wave on the mainland that

could derail the talks.

"I don't think the talks will be cancelled,

but do not expect us to make any

concessions; in theory, politics and

business should not mix, but it is hard to

separate the two," the mainland negotiator

said.

The bombing will give ammunition to

mainland hawks - led by National People's

Congress (NPC) chief and former premier

Li Peng and Minister for Information

Industry Wu Jichuan - against being soft to

the US in the WTO talks.

Analysts said the NPC under Mr Li had

enlarged its powers substantially and would

capitalise on a growing tide of

anti-American feelings to block any WTO

deal reached by Mr Zhu's negotiators.

China Academy of Social Sciences

economist Lu Zhen said: "We have already

made whatever concessions we can make,

and I personally think that if we cannot get

into the WTO this year, it's really no big

deal."

Fudan University economist Lu Deming

said: "It is still better for China and the rest

of the world that we get into WTO earlier

than later, but given the changing political

mood - and we are really upset with the

bombing - it is hard to say how things will

develop."

Copyright ©1999 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd.

All Rights Reserved.



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